


Escaping Eros

by Impala_Chick



Category: The Expanse (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Eros Incident (The Expanse), Horror, M/M, Protogen Mad Scientists, Science Fiction Horror, Season/Series 01, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:14:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25532695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impala_Chick/pseuds/Impala_Chick
Summary: On the way back to the Rocinante, Alex and Amos get separated from Naomi. Amos starts acting very strange, and Alex wonders if his behavior is connected to whatever the hell is happening on Eros.
Relationships: Amos Burton/Alex Kamal
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31
Collections: Multifandom Horror Exchange (2020)





	Escaping Eros

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snowshus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowshus/gifts).



It sounds as if thousands of pairs of feet are marching just above their heads. Occasionally there’s a loud crack, possibly the sound of a baton hitting someone across the face, and Alex winces. He also hears Belters scream, but he can't make out what they are saying.

“This is creepy, right?”

Amos shrugs in response. There is a dark shadow covering most of Amos’ face, so Alex can’t see his expression. In fact, it’s so dark in the tunnel they are hiding in that Alex can’t see much of anything. The darkness is almost more unsettling than the threat of whatever crazy bioweapon is about to be unleashed above them.

“Look, I think we’ve waited long enough. We need to get moving and reach the Roci,” Alex says.

From Amos’ direction there’s a low grunt of ascent, so Alex takes that as agreement. He starts forward down the tunnel, squeezing past Amos to take the lead.

As soon as he brushes his arm against Amos, goosebumps break out along his skin, but he ignores that. It wouldn't be the first time that being in close proximity to Amos has elicited a physical reaction. He’s not even embarrassed about it at this point. Amos knows exactly what his body does to Alex, and he’s never once made Alex feel ashamed about it.

“C’mon Amos, why ain’t you movin’?” Alex teases. 

Alex reaches out, intending to grab Amos by the arm and urge him on. Before he gets the chance, Amos suddenly lunges and pins Alex against the slimy tunnel wall with his entire body.

“Hey, what the fuck!” Alex hisses. Amos is much bigger than him, and his thighs and chest are pressed solidly against Alex’s. He can feel his heart rate jump up, but he’s not sure if that’s because of the precariousness of their situation or from the proximity of Amos’ body to his. They definitely don’t have time for whatever it is Amos has in mind. 

Although if they weren’t trapped on Eros, desperately trying to make it to their ship before some weird bioweapon destroys them, Alex might have considered going with the flow.

“We probably shouldn’t go out there,” Amos says very slowly, as if carefully considering each word. Now that he’s so close, Alex can see the faraway look in his eye, like he’s not really seeing Alex at all. 

Alex raises an eyebrow. “No can do, partner. We need to get the hell off this rock.”

Amos shakes himself and his eyes widen a little in surprise. Then he drops his arm and moves away from Alex in a hurry.

“Right,” he agrees. Amos steps back into the shadows and starts down the tunnel. Alex follows him, thoroughly confused. If Amos was anyone else, Alex would have chalked that display up to a healthy dose of fear. Except Alex has never seen Amos afraid of _anything_ before.

Miller and Holden left them about an hour ago. They’d been waiting in the tunnels for them to come back, but that had gotten old real quick. Naomi made the sound decision to head to the Roci and get it fired up, but then they’d gotten separated when they’d tried to forge their way through a massive sea of people who were being herded in the opposite direction.

So now it’s just Amos and Alex, carefully darting in and out of tunnels to avoid armed Protogen goons and throngs of terrified Belters. They aren’t exactly out of danger, but this situation is definitely not the scariest one they’ve been in. There hasn't been a direct threat on their ship or their lives since they started hiding in the tunnels, so Alex is thinking that luck has been on their side so far. He wonders if maybe Amos is just afraid of the dark.

He hasn't dared to look at his hand terminal for fear that the light will make them more noticeable to whatever is lurking on Eros, so he has no idea how long they’ve been on the run. It’s a nice relief when Alex finally notices dim fluorescent light at the end of the tunnel. Amos straightens up as he steps out into the light first. Alex pokes his head out, and doesn’t see another soul, so he joins Amos. 

Amos picks up the pace down the main street they seem to have found themselves on, his strides as long as Alex has ever seen them. 

“Hey, wait up!” Alex calls out as he tries to catch up. Amos doesn’t even spare a glance over his shoulder. 

And then, out of nowhere, a man wearing all black riot gear darts out into the street and grabs Alex. An arm snakes around his neck, and Alex can feel his larynx being crushed under the man’s strong grip. He can’t even get enough air to shout when he’s forced to the ground. 

Just as suddenly as it had happened, the man lets him go. Alex scrambles on his hands and knees to get away from him. He hears a groan and then the sound of flesh being torn apart, and he glances back over his shoulder as a guttural scream echoes up and down the street.

Amos has a man’s arm in his right hand. An arm that is no longer connected to a body. Amos tosses it to the ground and promptly snaps the man’s neck with his own hands. He lets the body go, and it crumples in on itself.

Alex pushes himself up, but he can’t tear his gaze from the arm. Blood is still oozing from the stump onto the ground, and it looks so surreal that Alex can barely comprehend that it was attached to a person only moments before. 

Amos had just ripped a man limb from limb to protect him. 

“Are you okay?” Alex asks as he finally meets Amos’ gaze. Amos stares at him blankly, seemingly frozen in place. There are flecks of blood on his cheek.

“Amos?” Alex tries again. Still, he gets no answer, but Amos shifts his gaze to the body on the floor.

After a moment, Amos starts walking again, but his movements are stiff and halted. 

Alex can relate. He knows that adrenaline is still coursing through him and his body feels tense all over. He keeps whipping his head around at the slightest hiss of an air vent. 

But Alex can't help but turn over the brutality in his head. Amos had dispatched that man quickly and coldly. The whole thing seemed unnecessarily cruel.

Amos disappears around a corner, and Alex rushes to keep up. He hears a grunt and some scuffling before he can see what is going on. 

They’ve managed to run right into a group of Protogen cops. There are four of them, although one of them is already laying on the ground. 

Amos has his hands on two of them, and he slams their heads together as Alex watches. Their assault rifles fall to the ground with a clatter. When Amos releases his grip on both of their vests, they drop faster than a block of ice during a high G maneuver. Amos picks up one of the assault rifles, and slams the butt of it into the heads of each of the prone cops. The fourth cop drops his weapon and takes off running away from Amos. Alex sure doesn’t blame him.

Amos doesn’t let the guy get away, though. He grabs the revolver out of his thigh holster and shoots the guy in the neck, right where his armor doesn’t protect him. 

“What the hell was that for?” Alex asks, startled.

“Can’t have him giving away our location,” Amos says stoicly as he tucks his gun back in his holster and starts walking.

Alex is sure now. Something is _wrong_. Amos is a tough sonofabitch, but he’s never been so callous for no reason at all. Alex jogs to catch up with him. 

“Hey man, maybe we should talk for a minute. Get our heads on straight.” Alex tries to sound casual, even though looking at Amos’ blank face and ten thousand yard stare is doing nothing to sooth his frayed nerves.

Gruffly, Amos replies, “We have to…” but he trails off mid-sentence when they turn another corner. There’s a man with thick tendrils of shiny blue goop sticking out of his back, just a few yards away from them.

“What the fuck,” Alex can’t help but ask. The long blue ropes seem to be oozing out along the floor, and growing longer by the minute. He’s hunched over, and his eyes look unnaturally blue. He’s got no pupil. His arms are spiked with short blue opaque triangles. He’s stumbling towards them, but his gate is completely unnatural. Maybe he’s diseased, or maybe he’s not even human. Alex has got no fucking idea, but the sight is gut churning. 

Alex glances over at Amos, about to ask if he’s got any bright ideas about what could be up with their new companion. Before he can say anything, Amos rushes the guy without so much as a glance Alex’s way.

“Don’t touch him!” Alex shouts. But he’s too late. Amos has already reached the strange man. He grabs one blue arm with his bare hand, and then bashes the head in with his fist until it completely changes shape. Blood lazily trickles down the man’s head, but it has a weird blue tint to it. 

The brutal beat-down is harrowing, and the body now looks pretty disgusting. Alex has no way to make sense of any of it. He feels his stomach roll and a wave of nausea crashes over him. He doesn’t puke, but it’s a near thing. He feels like he can’t swallow past the bile rising in his throat. 

Amos lets the guy drop to the ground and then shakes his hands out, as if to dissipate a cramp. Drops of blood fly through the air, some of them landing on Alex’s shirt. His eyes dart from the blood on his shirt, to the crumpled body, to Amos’ blank face. Alex’s skin starts crawling and there’s a pit in his stomach. Usually he’s impressed by Amos’ displays of strength, but Amos is acting like he’s on another planet. He’s not communicating or even looking at Alex. Shit is fucked up, and Alex has got no idea how to fix it.

So he starts walking. Once they get to the Roci, they can take a minute to regroup and figure out what’s up with Amos. And then maybe they can figure out what’s going on with that weird blue dude. But Alex has got to think of their situation one problem at a time before he loses his god damn mind. 

He hears Amos following behind him, but the sound is not as reassuring as it normally is.

They’ve only made it a few steps when Alex hears a groan somewhere behind them. He whips his head around and then gasps in horror.

The … thing Amos had struck down is up again and lurching towards them. It’s face is concave now from Amos’ blows, and it’s being fully supported by the long blue limbs sticking out of its back. There’s no way it's human. 

“Run,” Alex yells. 

Amos hesitates for a moment, and panic seizes Alex. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if Amos doesn’t follow. He definitely can’t carry him. And Alex has never been able to fight Amos and win. 

But then Amos obeys and takes off at a sprint. Alex looks back one more time at the weird hobbling _thing_. He can’t tell if it is looking at him or not. It’s swinging a long blue limb out in front, one at a time, and dragging the human parts along. It looks like some sort of spider with a human body wrapped up in the middle. 

Alex bolts, and realizes that they are finally within eyesight of the elevators. Amos gets inside first and starts mashing the button for the correct level. Alex heaves himself into the elevator behind Amos and the doors slide closed. Alex doubles over, out of breath. The elevator pulls them up to the Roci, and Alex has never felt more relieved in his life.

Just as he steps out onto the gangway, with the hull of the Roci in his sights, Amos grabs him and puts him in a choke hold. 

“Amos!” Alex stutters, gasping for air. He can feel Alex’s arm pulling tight against his throat, and he can just barely breathe.

Amos’ lips are at the shell of Alex's ear. Alex can feel warm breath on his cheek. 

“Don’t make me do this,” Amos grits out.

Alex manages a weak, “What?” 

Amos doesn’t reply, but his grip loosens slightly. Alex gulps a huge breath of air and tries to wiggle out of Amos’ hold, but he can’t. He feels the fear of being held down by a well-practiced killer, and the panic of being helpless to do anything to stop him. But he also wants to believe Amos wouldn’t hurt him. At least, not in a situation like this, when Alex isn’t asking him to.

“Hey! What’s going on?” It’s Naomi shouting at them. Alex can’t turn his head to look, but he can picture her standing just outside the Roci, watching them with confusion and alarm. Amos’ actions sure don’t make sense to Alex.

“Fuck,” Amos curses quietly. And then Alex feels him loosen his grip just a bit more. It’s still not enough for Alex to get away, but he can breath normally and move his head a bit. Instead of moving towards Naomi’s voice, he tries to look at Amos. He can turn only enough to see Amos’ nose and mouth. There’s sweat dripping from Amos’ face. 

Alex tries to coax him into compliance. “C’mon Amos, we’re gonna be okay.” 

“Alex,” Amos starts to speak carefully, like he’s talking to a child. “You have to throw me out of the airlock.” 

Alex can feel Amos’ body start to tremble against him, like he’s exerting great effort just to talk to him. He sounds much more lucid than he had been during their run across Eros. But the words still don’t make sense.

“What are you talking about? Whatever it is, we can -”

Alex is promptly cut off as Amos tightens his arm around Alex's throat again.

“Stop,” Amos roars. The strength of his voice makes Alex’s ears ring. “You can’t have him.” 

Alex gets the sense that Amos is not talking to him, and a shiver rolls through him. “Please, Amos. You don’t have to do this.” 

“Alex, I can’t -” Amos sounds weak, exhausted even. 

“Fight it,” Alex hisses. It’s all he can think to say. 

“Please, Alex -” 

But Alex doesn’t find out what Amos was asking for, because Amos suddenly lets him go and crumples to the ground. 

Alex looks around, bewildered, until he notices Holden holding a huge wrench above his head. And hoo boy, Holden looks like hell. His eyes are bloodshot, his clothes are torn, and his face is streaked with grime and blood. Miller is just behind him, and he looks like shit too. 

“C’mon, get him up.” Holden gestures to Amos’ crumpled form, and he and Holden each grab an arm and heave Amos up. Alex feels grateful and annoyed both that Holden showed up when he did. He knows Amos was fighting _something_ , conquering it, although he’s got no idea what _it_ is. They both carefully pull Amos down the gangway. Naomi hurriedly opens doors for them until they end up at the medical bay.

Naomi is clamoring for an explanation, asking him for details, but Alex feels bone deep exhaustion dragging down his body and he can't bring himself to answer. He hauls himself into a medical chair before he collapses. He sees Holden and Miller do the same out of the corner of his eye. He touches his throat and stares at Amos’ prone form slumped in one of the chairs, not really focusing on anything else. Naomi handcuffs Amos to his seat and immediately starts running diagnostics on all of them. 

Alex wants to feel safe now that he’s back on the Roci, but he just keeps touching his throat and thinking about Amos’ blank expression. 

Naomi’s voice cuts through Alex’s haze. “Alex, get whatever drugs you need and then get your ass to the pilot’s chair. We need to get away from Eros.” 

Right. They definitely need to do that. He pushes himself up out of the chair, willing his brain to focus. Luckily he already knows the Roci like the back of his hand, so he can get her out of there even half asleep.

“It’s a chip,” Naomi says as Alex walks by Amos’ chair. “They implanted something in him. It’s gotta be some Protogen tech.” 

She’s leaning over him with a scalpel in hand. Amos is still passed out, drugs pumping through him and keeping him down. When she cuts into his bicep, Alex can see his eyes move under his eyelids, but he doesn’t wake up. Small mercies, then.

Whatever had taken over Amos had made him into the shell of himself. Something more violent, more focused. His weird rambling in the elevator hadn’t made a lick of sense. Those protogen dicks had really done a number on Amos, but if it was just an implant, then that problem is easily solved. 

Alex exhales heavily, straps into the chair, and puts on his headset. He's on auto-pilot as he navigates them away from Eros and puts them in a low G spin. 

Finally, finally, they are all safe. 

Alex clumsily unbuckles his seatbelt, engages his mag boots to drop onto the deck, and turns slightly to the right. He’s greeted by Amos, standing right next to this chair, and Alex nearly jumps out of his skin in surprise. 

Amos seems to be laser-focused on Alex’s face, and he’s got a wide too-perfect smile pasted on. It’s mostly teeth.

“What the hell, man? You scared the shit outta me.” 

“You liked it, when I was out of control. I could tell.” He licks his lips and winks, but he’s still maintaining that weird, toothy grin.

“Are you shittin’ me right now? It’s definitely too early to joke about - ” Alex blinks, and then Amos is gone.

Alex whips his head around the quarterdeck, but he’s completely alone. His skin crawls and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. The ship hums quietly under his boots, as if everything is normal. 

But Alex knows better now.


End file.
